(Wimbledon) Canadian Denis Shapovalov was unable to advance to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles at the Wimbledon Open.
The Ontarian lost in four sets of 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 against the Russian Roman Safiullin.
Shapovalov hit eight aces but double-faulted 11, including six in the third set.
The Canadian won just 37% of the points after needing his second serve and suffered five service breaks from the second set onwards, after a nearly flawless opening set in the service.
Elsewhere, Shapovalov seemed to have a knee problem and struggled to complete the final three sets. By the time he left the court after his backhand, you could see he was limping.
For a second time this week, the French Caroline Garcia intervened in the course of the Quebecer Leylah Fernandez at the Wimbledon Tennis Open.
In a women’s doubles second-round match on Sunday, Fernandez and her American partner Taylor Townsend went down in three sets against Garcia and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani, who prevailed 6-4, 6-7(6), 6 -3, in two hours 15 minutes.
In the second round of women’s singles on Thursday, Fernandez suffered a heartbreaking loss in three sets to Garcia, a player ranked fifth in the world in singles but only 88th in doubles.
The elimination of Fernandez and Townsend comes less than a month after their qualification for the doubles final at the French Open on June 11. They had then lost in three sets against the tandem formed by the Chinese Wang Xinyu and the Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wei.
On Sunday, the two North Americans, seeded sixth in the women’s doubles table, faced just three break points but saved only one.
Fernandez and Townsend, who cleared a match point in the second-set tiebreaker, lost serve in the fifth game of the opening set, and in the second game of the third set.
After this break of service in the third set, Garcia and Stefani conceded only two points on their serve the rest of the match, and none in their last three service games.
Fernandez and Townsend were also unable to convert their four break chances, including one in the sixth game of the first set which would have allowed them to return to equal service.
Fernandez and Townsend concluded the duel with three aces and five double faults. They hit 65% of their first serves and won 73% of the points after landing their first ball in play. In both categories, Garcia and Stefani outperformed their rivals, with success rates of 72% and 81% , respectively.
Fernandez did not lose everything on Sunday, however. Registered in mixed doubles, the Lavalloise and her Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof qualified for the second round thanks to a victory of 7-5, 7-5 against the tandem of Frenchman Fabrice Martin and Taiwanese Hao-Ching Chan.
Meanwhile, shortly after the Fernandez loss, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Rohan Bopanna of India were eliminated in the first round of mixed doubles to Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Latisha Chan of Chinese Taipei, who prevailed 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4.
